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Week of October 1, 2018

New in Paperback

Week of October 1, 2018

Paperback releases for the week of October 1st include LEONARDO DA VINCI, in which Walter Isaacson weaves a narrative that connects Leonardo's art to his science, showing how his genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves --- such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy; Liza Mundy's CODE GIRLS, the award-winning national bestseller about the American women who secretly served as codebreakers during World War II; CARNEGIE'S MAID by Marie Benedict, which tells the story of one brilliant woman who may have spurred Andrew Carnegie's transformation from ruthless industrialist into the world's first true philanthropist; and IT'S ALL RELATIVE, A.J. Jacobs' hilarious, heartfelt quest to understand what constitutes family --- where it begins and how far it goes --- and his attempt to untangle the true meaning of the “Family of Humankind.”

Sophie Whitehouse has a lovely home, two adorable children, and a handsome, successful husband. But everything changes the night James comes home and confesses an indiscretion. It turns out that his revelation is just the tip of the iceberg: a larger scandal is about to explode. James stands accused of a terrible crime, and their family is shoved into the spotlight as his trial begins. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, another woman is working to destroy Sophie’s husband. Sophie remains convinced of James’ innocence and is desperate to protect her precious family from the rumors that threaten to rip them apart. Is James the guilty perpetrator or an innocent victim of a toxic agenda?

Clara Kelley is not the experienced Irish maid who was hired to work in one of Pittsburgh's grandest households. She's a poor farmer's daughter with nowhere to go and nothing in her pockets. But the other woman with the same name has vanished, and pretending to be her just might get Clara some money to send back home. Serving as a lady's maid in the household of Andrew Carnegie requires skills he doesn't have, answering to an icy mistress who rules her sons and her domain with an iron fist. What Clara does have is a strong resolve coupled with an uncanny understanding of business, and Andrew begins to rely on her. But Clara can't let her guard down, not even when Andrew becomes something more than an employer.

THE FLOATING WORLD takes readers into the heart of Hurricane Katrina with the story of the Boisdorés, whose roots stretch back nearly to the foundation of New Orleans. Though the storm is fast approaching the Louisiana coast, Cora, the family’s fragile elder daughter, refuses to leave the city, forcing her parents, Joe Boisdoré, an artist descended from a freed slave who became one of the city’s preeminent furniture makers, and his white “Uptown” wife, Dr. Tess Eshleman, to evacuate without her, setting off a chain of events that leaves their marriage in shambles and Cora catatonic --- the victim or perpetrator of some violence mysterious even to herself.

Ranging from the bitingly reproductive antics of “Baster” to the dreamy, moving account of a young traveler’s search for enlightenment in “Air Mail,” Jeffrey Eugenides’ first collection of short fiction presents characters in the midst of personal and national emergencies. We meet a failed poet who, envious of other people’s wealth during the real-estate bubble, becomes an embezzler; a clavichordist whose dreams of art founder under the obligations of marriage and fatherhood; and, in “Fresh Complaint,” a high school student whose wish to escape the strictures of her immigrant family leads her to a drastic decision that upends the life of a middle-aged British physicist.

Trouble comes in bunches for Stephanie Plum. First, professional grave robber and semi-professional loon, Simon Diggery, won’t let her take him in until she agrees to care for his boa constrictor, Ethel. Events take a dark turn when headless bodies start appearing across town. At first, it’s just corpses from a funeral home and the morgue that have had the heads removed. But when a homeless man is murdered and dumped behind a church, Stephanie knows that she’s the only one with a prayer of catching this killer. If all that’s not enough, Diesel is back in town. Trenton’s hottest cop, Joe Morelli, isn’t pleased at this unexpected arrival nor is Ranger, the high-powered security consultant who has his own plans for Stephanie.

A.J. Jacobs has received some strange emails over the years, but this note was perhaps the strangest: “You don’t know me, but I’m your eighth cousin. And we have over 80,000 relatives of yours in our database.” Who are these people, he wondered, and how do I find them? So began A.J.’s three-year adventure to help build the biggest family tree in history. His journey would take him to all seven continents. He drank beer with a US president, found himself singing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and unearthed genetic links to Hollywood actresses and real-life scoundrels. After all, we can choose our friends, but not our family.

Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson weaves a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy. He produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. But in his own mind, he was just as much a man of science and technology.

The home of a family of five is now a crime scene: four of them savagely murdered, one --- a 16-year-old girl --- missing. Was she lucky to have escaped? Or is her absence evidence of something sinister? Detective D. D. Warren is on the case --- but so is survivor-turned-avenger Flora Dane. Seeking different types of justice, they must make sense of the clues left behind by a young woman who, whether as victim or suspect, is silently pleading, Look for me.

When Paula picks up her last passenger of the night, all she sees is a few more dollars to put toward her husband's medical bills. That's before she recognizes the quiet stranger in her back seat as a world-famous musician and realizes the woman waiting at his destination is not his equally famous wife. So, Paula does what any down-on-her-luck woman would do. She asks for money in exchange for silence. But when a woman is murdered in the same building days later, Paula discovers she is the only witness to the secret affair --- an affair that incriminates the musician. Now, Paula's silence comes at a much more dangerous price.

The richest of New York's rich gather at The Pierre's Cotillion Room to raise money for those less fortunate. A fatal blast rocks the room, stirring up horrifying memories of 9/11. Is the explosion an act of terrorism --- or a homicide? A big-name female filmmaker is the next to die, in a desolate corner of New York City. Detectives Zach Jordan and Kylie MacDonald investigate. But the crimes keep escalating as a shadowy killer masterfully plays out his vendetta --- and threatens to take down NYPD Red in the bargain.

Abortion is once again illegal in America, in vitro fertilization is banned, and the Personhood Amendment grants rights of life, liberty and property to every embryo. In a small Oregon fishing town, five very different women navigate these new barriers. Ro, a single high-school teacher, is trying to have a baby on her own, while also writing a biography of Eivør, a little-known 19th-century female polar explorer. Susan is a frustrated mother of two, trapped in a crumbling marriage. Mattie is the adopted daughter of doting parents and one of Ro's best students, who finds herself pregnant with nowhere to turn. And Gin is the gifted, forest-dwelling herbalist, or "mender," who brings all their fates together when she's arrested and put on trial in a frenzied modern-day witch hunt.

Rosa Guerrero beat the odds as she rose to the top of the corporate world. A leader who wields power with grace and discretion, she has earned the devotion and loyalty of her staff. No one admires Rosa more than her doting lieutenant Leo Smalls, a benefits vice president whose whole world is Ellery. While Rosa is consumed with trying to address the needs of her staff within the ever-constricting limits of the company’s bottom line, her associate director, Rob Hirsch, a happily married father of two, finds himself drawing closer to his "work wife," Lucy Bender, an enterprising single woman searching for something to fill the vacuum in her personal life. For Kenny Verville, a senior manager with an MBA, Ellery is a temporary stepping-stone to bigger and better places --- that is, if his high-powered wife has her way.

It’s been a year since Poppy’s husband, Jack, was brutally murdered during his morning run through Manhattan’s Riverside Park. In the immediate aftermath, Poppy spiraled into an oblivion of grief, disappearing for several days only to turn up ragged and confused. Those lost days have never stopped haunting her. Poppy starts having nightmares and blackouts --- there are periods of time she can’t remember, and she’s unable to tell the difference between what is real and what she’s imagining. When she begins to sense that someone is following her, Poppy is plunged into a game of cat and mouse, determined to unravel the mystery around her husband’s death. But can she handle the truth about what really happened?

Attorney-detective Leo Maxwell seeks an exit strategy from his family’s deepening entanglement with a ruthless prison-based gang. Caught between the criminals and the FBI, Leo charts his own path in defending a young woman who was manipulated into brazenly murdering a member of the Aryan Brotherhood in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. When the consequences strike heartbreakingly close to home, Leo, his brother Teddy, and the rest of the family are forced into a winner-takes-all confrontation with men who don’t care how many innocents they harm in achieving their goals.

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Books On Screen

September's Books on Screen roundup includes the feature films Unbroken: Path to Redemption, Bel Canto and Little Women; the series premieres of "The Miniaturist" on Amazon Prime Video and "You" on Lifetime, along with the season two finale of USA's "The Sinner"; and the DVD releases of Adrift and The Seagull.